Email without a phone number: providers that skip SMS

Getting an email without a phone number is easy once you pick the right provider: Tuta, Posteo, Disroot and Riseup never ask for one, and Proton usually settles for a CAPTCHA. The harder part comes after signup: what the provider keeps, whose name ends up on the invoice, and whether the address can leave with you. This guide covers all three, from each provider's own pages.

Checked on 1 October 2026.

Why email providers ask for your phone number

The stated reason is abuse. Google says phone verification is sometimes required at signup to stop spammers, and it limits how many accounts one number can create (Google Account Help). Proton gives the same reason: if spammers get addresses easily, other providers start blocking its servers. A phone number makes every new account cost something.

The other reason is that a phone number is an identity. The GSMA counted 157 countries where prepaid SIM cards must be registered, as of February 2021 (GSMA, 2021). There, a number on your mail account leads to the name on the SIM contract. An anonymous email account that holds your phone number is not anonymous.

Email providers that do not require a phone number

Free plans first, then paid ones, each group in alphabetical order. "Keeps" is what each provider's own privacy or support pages say it retains.

Provider	Price	Signup asks for	Keeps	End-to-end encryption	Based in
Disroot	Free, 1 GB	Another email address, then manual approval	Server logs with IPs for 48 hours	No	Netherlands
Proton	Free, up to 1 GB; paid from €3.99/mo	A CAPTCHA, or a code by email or SMS	Verification email or phone as a hash; IP logs only temporary by default	Yes, except subject lines	Switzerland
Riseup	Free, 1 GB	An invite code from a member	No IP addresses	No	United States
Tuta	Free, 1 GB; paid from €3/mo	Nothing personal	No IP logs by default	Yes, subject lines included	Germany
mailbox.org	From €1/mo	A name, pseudonyms accepted	Name, IP and time of registration	Optional (PGP, S/MIME)	Germany
MurmurHost	From $2.55/mo	A working email address	IP of your latest panel visit, 90 days	No	Seychelles
Posteo	€1/mo, 4 GB	Nothing personal	No IPs tied to accounts	Optional (PGP, S/MIME)	Germany

Paid prices above are for yearly billing where the provider discounts it. End-to-end encryption at Tuta and Proton covers mail between their own users, or a password-protected message to anyone else. Mail from an ordinary address is encrypted only once it reaches their servers.

• Disroot and Riseup are free and donation-funded, and each has a gate: Disroot wants an existing email address for approval (deleted afterwards unless you keep it for password resets), Riseup wants an invite from a member.
• MurmurHost, in our email bay, takes Monero at its own checkout: crypto only, no phone, a custom domain on every plan. It is a standard IMAP mailbox, not an end-to-end encrypted one. Unit page.
• Proton usually accepts a CAPTCHA, but its help page says Tor users are more likely to be offered only email or SMS verification (Proton human verification).
• Tuta (formerly Tutanota) asks for no phone number, even over Tor. The catch: some new accounts, often those arriving from a VPN or Tor, are held for manual approval, usually cleared within 24 hours on working days, and cannot send or receive until then (Tuta support). Free accounts are deleted after six months without a login. Unit page.

Tuta vs Proton without a phone number

Most people end up choosing between these two. Both usually skip the phone; they differ in what happens when a signup looks suspicious, and in how you can pay.

	Tuta	Proton Mail
Phone at signup	Never	Sometimes, instead of the CAPTCHA
Over Tor or a VPN	May be held for manual approval	Tor users more often get only email or SMS
Free plan	1 GB, one address	Up to 1 GB, one address, 150 messages a day
Cheapest paid plan	€3/mo yearly: 20 GB, 3 custom domains	€3.99/mo yearly: 15 GB, 1 custom domain
Subject lines	End-to-end encrypted	Not end-to-end encrypted
Pay without a card	Monero, Bitcoin or cash, via gift cards only	Bitcoin, cash by mail, bank transfer
Inactive free account	Deleted after 6 months	Can be deleted after 12 months

If never handing over a number matters most, pick Tuta: the usual cost is a wait of up to a working day. Pick Proton if you want IMAP in a regular mail client on a paid plan (Tuta has none) or want to pay in Bitcoin at the provider's own checkout, and accept that it may ask for an email or SMS code over Tor. Neither takes Monero at its own checkout.

Gmail without a phone number

Google's help page for creating an account lists adding a phone number as optional (Create a Google Account). Its verification page says a phone is sometimes required anyway, and Google does not publish what triggers it. When the step appears without a skip option, there is no documented way around it.

Google's privacy policy also lists "email you write and receive" among the content it collects, and names your phone number and carrier among the information it gathers from the devices you use (Google Privacy Policy). A Gmail account created without a number can still learn it later.

If you need an address that never touched a phone, use a provider above. Google also accepts a non-Gmail address for a Google Account, so the new mailbox can sit behind YouTube or Google Play too, though the same phone check may appear.

Create an email without a phone number that stays unlinked

A provider that never asks for your number can still learn a lot from the way you arrive.

1. Network. Sign up over Tor Browser or a VPN you paid for privately (see the network bay). A day's approval wait costs less than a phone number.
2. Browser. Use a separate browser profile with no Google or social accounts signed in, so no cookie ties the new address to your usual one.
3. Recovery. Save the recovery code at once: Tuta's is 64 characters, Proton's a 12-word phrase. Do not add your usual email or phone as a recovery option. Tuta helps with a lost second factor only on a paid plan with a card or PayPal stored, since it has no other way to verify the owner. On a free account, or one funded by gift card, the recovery code is the only way back.
4. Patience. New Tuta addresses are sometimes on hold for 48 hours, and confirmation emails sent meanwhile bounce. Do not register anywhere with it for the first two days.
5. Separation. Do not forward the new mailbox to your old one. A forwarding rule links the two as surely as a shared number.

Paying for a mailbox without your name on the invoice

A card or PayPal puts your legal name next to the account. What each paid provider offers instead, from its own payment pages:

Provider	Cash by mail	Bitcoin	Monero
mailbox.org	Yes, euro banknotes	No	No
MurmurHost	No	Yes	Yes, at checkout
Posteo	Yes	No	No
Proton	Yes (USD, EUR, CHF)	Yes, after signup	No
Tuta	Via gift card	Via gift card	Via gift card

• Disroot and Riseup are free, and both accept donations in Monero.
• mailbox.org runs on prepaid credit it does not refund. Posteo says it keeps payment data and mailboxes strictly apart.
• Proton takes cash posted to Geneva with your username inside, and cannot refund cash. Bitcoin does not appear at the first checkout: create a free account, then upgrade (Proton payment options).
• Tuta does not take Monero at its own checkout. It lists cards, PayPal and, for EU businesses, bank transfer; crypto and cash go through gift cards from its partner Proxystore (Tuta payment FAQ). Proxystore sells €18, €36 and €96 cards payable in Monero, Bitcoin or cash. Redeem one, choose account balance when you upgrade, and no payment details need to be linked to the account.

The same logic applies to servers: see the no-KYC VPS guide.

Use your own domain so you can leave

An address on the provider's domain belongs to the provider. If the account is deleted, the terms change or you want to move, every login tied to that address stays behind. An address on your own domain moves with you.

Custom domains today:

• Disroot: as a thank-you for a donation.
• mailbox.org: Standard and Premium, not Light.
• MurmurHost: every plan.
• Posteo: never. A domain is registered to a person's name and address, and Posteo says hosting one would mean keeping that data.
• Proton: Mail Plus (1) and Unlimited (3), not Free.
• Tuta: Revolutionary (3) and Legend (10), not Free.

The registrar then holds the link between you and the address. Njalla says it owns the domain for you and grants you full use of it, so its details sit in WHOIS instead of yours; signup takes an email or XMPP address, payment can be Monero, and anycast DNS and email forwarding are included, from €15 a year. The domains and DNS bays list others, and anonymous domain registration covers the choice in full.

The records look like this, with values from your mail provider:

example.org.         MX   10 mail.provider.example.
example.org.         TXT  "v=spf1 include:provider.example -all"
_dmarc.example.org.  TXT  "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine"

Add the DKIM record and any ownership TXT record your provider asks for. Moving later means changing these records and copying your mail across. The other way to own the whole chain is self-hosting an email server, a bigger project with its own trade-offs.

FAQ

Which email is best without a phone number?

For a free mailbox, Tuta: it never asks for a number, even over Tor, and encrypts subject lines. Expect a possible approval wait of up to a working day. To pay without your name, Posteo and mailbox.org take cash by post, and MurmurHost takes Monero.

How do I skip my phone number on Gmail?

You cannot force it. Google lists the phone as optional, but says verification is sometimes required and does not say when. If the prompt appears without a skip option, use a provider that never asks.

Which free email service doesn't require phone number verification?

Tuta, Disroot and Riseup never ask. Disroot needs another email address for approval, and Riseup an invite code. Proton Free usually accepts a CAPTCHA but may fall back to email or SMS, especially over Tor.

Why are people ditching Gmail?

Mostly over data. Google's privacy policy says it collects the email you write and receive, and Google may demand a phone number before the account exists. Moving is easier when the address sits on your own domain, because your contacts never notice the switch.

Signing up without a phone number is the quick part. An address that stays unlinked takes a clean network, a recovery code on paper, a payment without your name and a domain you control. For the rest of the stack, hosting providers that accept Monero lists servers, domains and VPNs you can pay the same way.